Height barrier at Morwadi grade separator knocked down by unidentified vehicle within 18 hours

A height barrier put up by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to stop heavy vehicles from getting stuck under the Morwadi grade separator on the Mumbai-Pune highway fell within 18 hours of being installed. An unidentified vehicle rammed into it.

The iron barrier was installed on the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar grade separator at around 5.30 am on Thursday, November 5. An unidentified vehicle brought it down at around 11 pm the same day. It is feared that the driver fled along the service road after the accident.

A height barrier installed earlier at the same spot had broken within 48 hours. The latest incident has surpassed that record of sorts.

The civic body had installed the barrier so that tall containers and other heavy vehicles do not enter the grade separator and damage its structure. Several tall containers have earlier got stuck under the structure, damaging its slab and horizontal beam.

The matter surfaced again on October 30, when another container scraped the horizontal beam, leaving it in a dangerous condition. After a warning from the traffic police, the civic administration had kept the road closed to traffic from 3 pm to 5 pm on October 31.

Manoj Borse, executive engineer in the civic body's civil projects department, said the height barrier installed in the early hours of Thursday was knocked down by an unidentified vehicle at around 11 pm.

Meanwhile, Pimpri traffic police inspector Amit Dolas demanded a full check of the height barrier and of the actual clearance available under the grade separator. He also suggested examining whether repeated layers of asphalt laid under the bridge have reduced the real clearance.

Dolas said container vehicles do not often get stuck at the city's other grade separators. This raises questions about the height available in the Morwadi structure.